A number of high-current pulsed-power accelerators have been developed by the international pulsed-power community. Many of these accelerators have been optimized to drive z-pinch loads. These z-pinch accelerators have been used for a wide variety of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), radiation physics, equation-of-state, plasma physics, astrophysics, and other high-energy-density-physics (HEDP) experiments.
Presently, the z-pinch driver that operates at the highest electrical power is the Z accelerator, which is located at Sandia National Laboratories. See R. B. Spielman et al., Proc. 11th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., p. 709 (1997). The Z accelerator delivers 55 terawatts (TW) of electrical power to the accelerator's vacuum-insulator stack, and 19 megamperes (MA) to a 10-mm-initial-radius 10-mm-length pinch that implodes in 95 nanoseconds (ns). Such a z-pinch radiates 130 TW of x-ray power in a 10-ns pulse. See R. B. Spielman et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 2105 (1998).
Recent calculations suggest that accelerators with electrical powers in excess of 1000 TW (i.e., in excess of one petawatt) will be required to drive z-pinch implosions that radiate in excess of 1000 TW of x-ray power. Such radiated powers would enable large-diameter ICF-capsule implosion experiments and other HEDP experiments to be conducted over heretofore inaccessible parameter regimes. See W. A. Stygar et al., Phys. Rev. E 72, 026404 (2005).
A number of architectures have been proposed in the literature for the design of future pulsed-power z-pinch drivers. These architectures are described in the following references: C. L. Olson, “Inertial confinement fusion: z-pinch”, Chapter 9, Landholt-Boernstein Handbook on Energy Technologies, editor-in-chief: W. Martienssen, volume VIII/3 of Fusion Technologies, edited by K. Heinloth, (Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg, 2005); J. J. Ramirez, Proc. 10th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., p. 91 (1995); K. W. Struve and D. H. McDaniel, Proc. 12th Int. Conf. High-Power Particle Beams (Beams '98), IEEE, Haifa, Israel, p. 334 (1998); P. Sincerny et al., Proc. 12th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., p. 479 (1999); K. W. Struve et al., Proc. 12th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., p. 493 (1999); P. Corcoran et al., Proc. 13th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., p. 577 (2001); M. G. Mazarakis et al., Proc. 13th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J., p. 587 (2001); D. H. McDaniel et al., Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Dense Z Pinches, AIP, Melville, N.Y., p. 23 (2002); P. Spence et al., Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Dense Z Pinches, AIP, Melville, N.Y., p. 43 (2002); and M. G. Mazarakis et al., to be published in the Proc. 15th IEEE Int. Pulsed Power Conf., IEEE, Piscataway, N.J. (2005).
These prior pulsed-power accelerator architectures are capable of being scaled to deliver electrical powers in excess of a petawatt. However, the new architecture described below is significantly more efficient, and hence is less expensive, than any of these prior architectures.